Page 6 of Ra (The Scarab Prophecy #1)

Ra watched with wonder as the world went by outside of Azi’s car. His nose was pressed up against the glass, and from time to time he’d angle his head so he could better see something higher.

She grinned to herself as she watched him, then without warning him, she rolled the window down with the controls on her driver’s side door.

As the window descended and the hot air from the Egyptian summer hit him in the face, he jumped back, pressing his body against his seat. He turned his head quickly to look questioningly at Azi.

“It’s a window. I rolled it down for you to better see.”

“It disappeared! It did not roll!”

“Here,” she said, pushing the button with her finger to show him how it went up and down. “It’s called rolling up or down. It sits on levers inside the door and goes up and down on command.”

“This is fascinating! Clever! So clever!” he exclaimed, leaning his head partially out of the window to better see the taller buildings around him as they drove through the neighborhoods on their way to a small shopping center she was familiar with.

She smiled to herself as she pressed the accelerator to keep up with the traffic ahead of her.

The next thing she knew Ra was on his knees in his seat, seatbelt tossed uncaringly aside, as he stuck his head and chest out of the window, looking forward one moment, and backward the next.

“Get back in the car!” she exclaimed.

“Hello! Hello, people of Kemet! I am back! I bestow blessings and favors upon you!”

“Get back in here!” Azi shouted as they approached a red-light. She grabbed ahold of his shendyt and tried to pull him back in.

“Unhand me! One does not touch Ra without explicit invitation!”

“Get in the car before you get us both in trouble.”

“My people!” he exclaimed as they finally came to a stop at a crowded corner.

“Ra!” she yelled, taking hold of his Shendyt again.

Without even looking back at her, he slapped her hand away with one hand, while lifting himself up to his waist out of the window and extending his free hand out toward the crowd. He lifted his hand in the air, palm facing the crowd as he began to sing a prayer in ancient Egyptian.

“Oh, dear God, you’re worse than a German Shepherd! Get in the damn car before someone starts recording you!”

She heard laughter, then applause as he shifted just enough for her to see around him to the thoroughly entertained crowd.

“Too late,” she mumbled, smiling and giving a little half-hearted wave at those who were already aiming their phones at Ra, hanging out of her car, blessing them in their ancient native tongue.

Azi leaned forward and slowly banged her head on her steering wheel.

“It’s King Tut!” someone exclaimed.

Immediately his entire demeanor changed.

His hands were no longer raised blessing his people.

Now they were braced against the window frame, and he scowled angrily at them.

“How dare you not know the god of your sun! I should strike you all down where you stand, ungrateful, undeserving humans!” he bellowed.

“Oh, you’re Ra? If that’s what you’re trying for, maybe have them use a bigger actor next time,” one lady told him.

“Yes, or dress you with more regalia so we know you’re pretending to be a god,” another offered.

“You do not deserve my blessings! I take them back, all taken back!” he declared.

More laughter followed his declaration.

“I have to give you props for your dedication to the role! You’re sticking with it!” a man shouted.

“Ra, get in the damn car now!” Azi insisted.

He ignored her.

Thankfully the light turned green. Azi pressed her foot on the gas, in what America was known as flooring it, and quickly left the laughing, phone holding, video taking crowd behind.

“You nearly tossed me from your chariot!”

“It’s a car. I’ve been telling you to get back into it for four minutes. It’s not a chariot. It’s a car. A vehicle. A machine to take you from one place to another.”

“I nearly fell from its window!”

“It’s meant to look out of, not crawl out of!” she half-yelled at him.

Begrudgingly Ra sat back down, his arms crossed over his chest, his feet planted on the passenger-side floorboard, as he did his best to stare straight ahead.

He would have pulled it off had it not been for the sights rushing by that he just had to see.

And while he didn’t thrust his body out of the window again, he couldn’t resist leaning his head through its opening to get a better look at all they drove past.

Watching him as she drove, Azi decided that maybe getting clothes this evening was too much to hope for.

He wasn’t ready to be face-to-face with other people, and she wasn’t ready to try to corral him because he was face-to-face with other people.

She put her blinker on and turned at the next intersection, taking them onto a less busy, and much more rural area, where her home was located.

Tonight, all she was up for was dinner, a shower, and a bit of praying.

If she had to, she’d slip him a sleeping pill or two so they could both get some rest. Tomorrow they’d worry about everything else.

~~~

“What is this place? It is quite small,” Ra said critically.

Azi shot a bit of side-eye at Ra as she pulled her keys out of the ignition and got out of the car.

“Are we leaving the… car? That is what it is called. I remember!” he announced, shoving an arm into the air, with his index finger pointing to the sky triumphantly as he rushed to get out of the car and stand beside it.

Azi shook her head and simply started up the curved cement path to the front door of her father’s three story home.

“Azi! Are you experiencing trouble hearing my voice? You know, the oracle once had issues hearing me. It was not long afterward, only a thousand years or so, until no one heard us anymore.”

“I can hear you,” Azi said, using her keys to unlock the front door and let herself in.

“That is good. If you can hear me, I am alive. And I am most definitely alive.”

Azi paused briefly beside a side table near the front door to drop her purse and keys in their usual place, then leaned over to untie her hiking boots and kick them off only several more steps into the house.

A few feet later she balanced on first one foot, then the other, as she snatched her socks off and tossed them to the floor in her wake as well.

“Why do you toss your things about? It is imperative that my temples be kept clean and tidy.”

“First, what I do with my things is no concern of yours. Second, this is my home, it is most certainly not your temple.”

“Any structure in which I live, even temporarily, becomes a temple.”

Azi, who was already in the kitchen digging in the fridge, looked at him over the open door as she bit into an apple. “Not this structure. It was my father’s home, and is now mine.”

Ra looked around the room he stood within. It was very austere. Dark wood, old furniture. Shelves lined with books. White furniture. His brow furrowed. “The white seating does not match the rest of the decor.”

“How nice of you to notice.”

Ra narrowed his gaze, wishing that he had his powers so that he could teach her a quick lesson in knowing her place. “Why does it not match the rest of the decor,” he settled on.

“Because the dark woods, books, antiques, and tiled floors were part of my father’s choices.

He built this house, all three floors of it, and filled it with things he loved from ancient Egypt.

Most of what you see throughout the rest of the house is a partial collection of his life’s work.

While I share his passion for Egypt and her history, I prefer my own home to be light, minimal, white.

So I’ve changed things that can easily be changed without having to permanently alter his house, or remove his collections. ”

“Is your father expected to return?”

Azi looked at Ra for a few moments before answering and he immediately sensed her pain and her fear.

“It would be alright if he did, but I’m not expecting it.

” She shrugged and leaned over to dig in the fridge again, this time coming out with several covered containers of food.

“Dig through these and see what looks good to you.”

“Good in what way?”

“To eat. They’re all my leftovers from the week. Sorry, I don’t cook.”

“All females can cook.”

“I didn’t say I can’t. I said I don’t. If you’re hungry, this is what your choices are.”

“I do not think I’ll be eating.”

Azi closed the fridge and looked at him quizzically.

“Why do you look at me with that expression?”

“I’m trying to figure out why you clearly said you wanted to live again, but you really were planning to die of hunger. Makes no sense.”

“I am not planning to die. I do not die! I am an immortal god!”

“You were an immortal god. You have been reborn into a human body. If you do not eat, you will die.”

“If I do not, I will not be required to expel waste from my body. It is a filthy thing to have to tend to!” he said with disgust.

“Your stomach still hurts, doesn’t it? You still haven’t peed.”

“I will not.”

“Then you won’t have to worry about eating, because your bladder will explode and you’ll die then.”

“That is not true.”

“Sure it is, but that’s fine. You do you.” Azi walked past him, munching on her apple, and he followed, unsure of what to do with himself next.

“When one leaves my presence, they must ask for permission and bow to me as they go.”

Azi burst into laughter. “Oh, you have to stop saying things like that. I’m too tired to be laughing that hard at the end of a very, very long day.”

“It was not meant to be humorous. I am teaching you etiquette when in the presence of a god.”

“I think that maybe you should be trying to learn about the body you are in, and the world you are in, instead of trying to bend the rest of the world to your liking. No one worships the ancient Egyptian gods anymore. Not even the Egyptians.”

“We are not forgotten,” he said, his voice quiet.

“No, you’re not. And many believe that at one time you were real, but it’s been a very long time since anyone believed you are still real.

Maybe try to stop standing on circumstance and just enjoy living in the moment without everyone paying homage to you.

I think you could have fun. It might be freeing to not have to hold firmly to so much duty. ”

He stood puzzling over her statement as she started up the stairs. “I think perhaps you have misunderstood. I am not a king. I am a god. Others do things for me. Kings carryout the duties I mandate. I simply think it and it is done.”

Azi disappeared into a small room, closing the door to keep him out, just as he would have entered. “You see, that is your problem. You can’t do that anymore. Try to understand that, and life will be much easier.”

He groaned.

She opened the door and looked curiously at him. “Gotta pee?”

“It has become very, very painful.”

Azi reached out and took him by the hand.

“Come on.” She led him down the hallway to a room at the end.

She opened the door and flipped on the light.

“This was my father’s room. You can use it while you’re here.

” But rather than walk away and leave him in the room, she continued through it, her hand still grasping his.

She went into a smaller room, opening the door and flipping the light on in it as well.

“This is your bathroom.” Azi pushed the shower curtain back and turned on the water, adjusting the water to a comfortable temperature before turning on the shower.

Water started spraying out and Ra looked at it with wonder.

“You’ve called forth a waterfall! It is a small waterfall, but a waterfall nonetheless!

It is excellent work. I feel you may be a demigod. It is the only explanation.”

“I am not a demigod. This is a bathroom. Everyone has one in their house. Get in.”

“What?”

“Get in the shower.”

“I do not need a shower.”

“Yes, you really do.”

He looked at her, then at the water pouring from the shower head.

“Seriously, it’s not that big a deal. It’ll make you feel so much better and refreshed.”

“There are no oils.”

“We don’t use oils like you’re used to. We use soaps and washes. They’re right there. Decide which you like the scent of and use it to clean your body.”

“And what will you do?”

“I am going to my own bathroom to take my own shower.”

“You do this often?”

“We do this daily. Sometimes twice a day.”

He grimaced and pressed his hand to his bladder again.

“I promise it will make you feel better.”

“Very well,” he said, stepping over the side of the tub and standing beneath the water with his shendyt on. The moment the water started coursing down his body, his bladder let go. He released a long, grateful sigh as relief began to overtake him.

“And… there you go. Don’t wait so long next time. When you get out, leave your shendyt hanging on the side of the tub. I’ll show you how to wash it later.”

“You did that intentionally! You knew with the water flowing over my body I would not be able to withstand the need!”

“Yep. You’re welcome.”

“What will I wear? My only clothing is wet and soiled!”

“You’ll find a closet in the bedroom full of my father’s clothes. Find something that you don’t mind wearing and that fits more or less, and put it on. Clean yourself and find something to wear. You need to blend in with the rest of society. I’m going to take my own shower.”

“You said we would obtain clothing for me. I will wear my own, not your father’s clothing.”

“Yes, and I decided that I’m not up to it tonight. You can use my father’s in the meantime. He won’t need them.”

“Why not?”

“He’s in a care facility at the moment,” she said, not angrily, but not too far off.

“A care facility?”

“Just, clean yourself and get dressed! I’ll be back when I’m done.”